From Constitutional Monarchy to Authoritarian State:

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From Constitutional Monarchy to Authoritarian
State

• The Case of Iraq

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Map of Iraq
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Background on IraqFour Points To Remember

• Iraq did not exist as a state prior to 1921.
• Created from 3 Ottoman provinces of Mosul,
  Baghdad, Basra
  
• Diverse Population
• Religious divisions Sunnis, Shiites (
  Christians)
  
• Ethno-linguistic divisions Arabs, Kurds
• Population 60 Shiite Arab 15 Sunni Arab 20
  Kurd (mostly Sunnis)
  
• Urban-Rural divisions
• British invasion and colonial administration
• Nov 1914 British invasion
• Imported monarchy
• 1921 Faisal from Arabia becomes king. Iraq gains
  formal independence in 1932.

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Centralizing State vs Established social elites
Iraq as a British-allied constitutional monarchy,
1921-1936
Iraqi Politics, Phase 1

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Faisal I, 1st king of Iraq
Photos from Iraqipages.com
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Formal Institutions of the State

• King (a new institution)
• Supreme head of state
• Could open dissolve Parliament
• Confirms laws
• Selects PM
• Could grant pardons, issue special ordinances
• Parliament
• Shares legislative power with the king
• Appointed Senate elected chamber of deputies

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How politics really worked actual power

• Monarchy
• Infighting ineffective PM Parliament
• Tribal chiefs
• Re-empowered by Britain
• Britain
• Retained military bases, control of Iraqi foreign
  policy, control over Iraqs finances, advisors
  
• How did the British retain control?
• Divide and rule country vs town tribe vs king
  tribe vs tribe
  
• Military force (especially air power)

• If the writ of King Faisal runs effectively
  throughout his kingdom it is entirely due to
  British aeroplanes. If the aeroplanes were
  removed tomorrow, the whole structure would
  invariably fall to pieces.
• - British Secretary of State report on Iraq,
  1925
  

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Faisals goals.

• Survival
• Gradual eradication of British influence in Iraq
• Creation of a national state
• Creation of national army
• Conscription
• Mass education

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And challengers

• British (wanted to maintain power)
• Kurds (opposed Arab nationalism)
• Shiite Arabs (opposed educational reforms
  exclusion from government)
  
• Tribal leaders (opposed efforts to redistribute
  land and erode their power base)
  
• The masses (opposed conscription, etc.)
• In 1930s, at least 80 percent of Iraqs
  population was rural

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Effects of British colonialism on Iraqi political
structures?

• Perpetuation of Sunni Arab political dominance
• Re-empowerment of the tribes in rural areas
• Reinforced major schisms in Iraqi society

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Major players in Iraqi Politics,1921-1936
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Results Catch 22s

• Fledgling sense of Iraqi national identity but
  two Iraqs and no real independence
  
• King wants independence but relies on British to
  maintain power
  
• British support undermines state legitimacy but
  necessary for maintaining power
  
• Centralization of power in Baghdad but British
  support for tribes
  
• to create mass support, land reform needed, but
  narrow base of state support requires some aid
  from tribal leaders
  

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Iraqi Politics, Phase II

• The rise of the military the creation of the
  Iraqi Republic (1936-1968)

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Iraqi Politics, Phase II

• Divisions within the state
• The fading monarchy
• Revolving Prime Ministry
• The Rise of the Army
• Seven military coups 1936-1941
• Expansion of political elites
• The Iraqi Communist Party (1935)
• Only Iraqi political organization with real
  grassroots organization
  
• The Baath (Resurrection) Party (1952)
• Unity, Freedom, Socialism
• Arab nationalist, secular, Arab socialist,
  anti-imperialist, populist, revolutionary (not
  reformist)

Militarism Political Violence
British occupy Iraq 1941 Increasing authoritari
anism
Pan-Arabism vs the monarchy
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1958 Revolution

• Violent overthrow of the monarchy
• Creation of the Republic of Iraq
• Ceremonial president
• Qasim as PM, commander in chief, minister of
  defense
  
• Reform Dictatorship under President Abd
  al-Karim Qasim
  
• Purging of western advisors, efforts to solve
  Kurdish problem, land reform, public welfare
  projects
  
• Centralization of authority

Abd al Karim Qasim, President of Iraq, 1958-1963
1963 military coup (Baath Army) Qasim killed
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Results

• Violence becomes entrenched part of Iraqi
  political culture
  
• Army influence over politics prevents civilian
  access, impedes societal coalition building
  
• Between 1958 and 1968 more than 10 coups and
  attempted coups, two armed rebellions,
  semicontinuous civil war against Kurds.
  
• 25-35 of all cabinet posts held by military men
• Three presidents, most PMs, and almost all
  ministers of interior and defense were
  ex-military men
  
• Newly independent foreign policy
• Some land reforms sporadic inclusion of Shiites
  Kurds into the political process
  

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Major Players in Iraqi Politics, 1936-1968
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 Phase IIISTATE OVER SOCIETY

• Iraq as a One Party State The Baath Party and
  the Authoritarian Rule of Saddam Hussein,
  1968-2003

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Two coups 1963 and 1968

• 1963 Baath Party Military (Arif)
• Baath forced out of the new govt after the coup
• 1968 Baath Party coup
• Reasons for coups
• pan-Arabism vs Iraqi nationalism
• Patronage
• Those who dominate the state dominate access to
  resources
  
• Military seeks to maintain control over political
  process
  
• Lack of leadership linked to preoccupation with
  managing the dispersal of the states resources

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The rise and rule of Saddam Hussein

• Biography
• DOB 04/28/37 in Tikrit, 100 m. north of Baghdad
• Peasant family with influential army relatives
• most prominent Uncle Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr a
  leader of the 1963 coup and later PM.
  
• Tribal society al-Bejat clan, Albu Nasir Tribe
•  high school in Baghdad joined Baath Party when
  20, aided in failed assassination of Qasim in
  Oct. 1959.  

Saddam Husseins identity card, when he was 10
years old. Photo PBS Frontline website
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• After 1963 coup becomes vice chair of the RCC
  (main decisionmaking body for the Baath regime).
  Also in charge of the security services.
  
• Becomes president in 1979 when al-Bakr was
  persuaded to step down.
  

Above left, SH in Cairo after failed 59 coup
above, SH at 17.
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Points to note about S. Hussein

• Ruled through fear as well as charm and
  brilliant tactical maneuvering.
  
•  Was able to seize 4 main centers of power in
  Iraq- army, party, tribe, security services
  
•  His rise highlights the paradox of Iraq
  politics on the one hand, a huge and elaborate
  bureaucracy. On the other, real power centered on
  select few linked to SH through bonds of kinship
  or a history of personal trust.

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Single-Party Oligarchy

• Baath consolidation of power, 68-79

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Regime consolidation within the state

• a. internal purging, sentencing and public
  executions of any suspected political dissidents.
  
  
• Between 1968-1970, 86 official executions.
• Saddam Hussein and the Night of Long Knives
  (July 1979).
  
• Purging of Rev. Command Council of all possible
  challengers to SH. A quarter of the RCCs
  membership (five out of 20) were tortured and
  murdered along with another 16 Baath leaders.
  Around 500 senior party members killed.
• Army brought under Baath control 
• new elevation of particular social groups
• Tribes, Tikritis

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Regime consolidation within society

• a. Penetration of the Baath Party into all parts
  of social and political life- womens groups,
  labor unions, student federations.  
  
• b. Substantial economic and political reforms in
  the 1970s
  
• 1972 nationalization of the Iraqi Petroleum
  Company (consortium of several foreign-owned
  companies) VERY popular and soon began bringing
  the new regime significant new funds.

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Resistance

• Kurds open war 1970-1975, with backing of Iran
  
  
• Shiites- formation of secret, clerically led
  groups
  
• antigovernment demonstrations in the late 1970s
  arrest and execution of prominent Shiite leaders
  

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Autocracy

• How Saddam Hussein the Baath maintained power,
  1968-1991

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1. Oil

• Nationalization of the Iraq Petroleum Company in
  1972 OPEC oil embargo and hike in prices in
  1973 skyrocketing oil revenues for Baath use
  
• 1968 oil revenues 476 million 1980- 26
  billion
  
• In 1979 Iraqs oil production second only to
  Saudi Arabias in oil-producing states of the
  Persian Gulf.
  

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(How SH maintained power) 2. Social welfare

• reduction of taxes
• Subsidies for basic food
• Free, high quality health care
• No university tuition fees
• Improvements in status of women (In 82 more than
  30 univ. students were female)
  
• Extensive literacy campaigns

• new highway systems better infrastructure
• Subsidies of ordinary consumption items
• Land ownerships no taxes for many Shiite
  peasants living in the south
  
• Extensive reforms in the countryside new land
  distributed to farmers
  
• between 1970 and 1982 264,400 farmers received
  grants of land.
  

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Saddam Hussein visiting homes, 1980s
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(How SH maintained power)3. Fear terror

• Wholesale political repression and persecution of
  all potential dissidents
  
• Imprisonment, extrajudicial executions
• Death sentences including for non-violent
  offenses, in 1998 and 1999 hundreds of prisoners
  summarily executed in a jail cleaning program
  
• Public hangings and public executions.
•  Creation of multiple, alternative sets of
  internal security organizations
  
• State internal security, military intelligence,
  party intelligence
  
• Massive surveillance and informant system
•  Forced internal migration to resettle restive
  areas (especially Kurds and Shiite Marsh Arabs)

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(How SH maintained power)4. Cult of Personality
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1989 Victory Arch
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(How SH maintained power)5. War

• Iran-Iraq War 1980-1989
• longest conventional war of the 20th century
• Cost 100-000 200,000 Iraqis dead, 400,000
  wounded, 70,000 prisoners.
  
• 25 billion debt to Saudis, 10 billion to
  Kuwait 40 billion to the US, Europe and rest
  of the world.
  
• Results
• solidified sentiments of Iraqi national identity
  among the bulk of the population.
  
• Because of concern over Shiite loyalty SH brought
  greater numbers of Shiites into the regime as
  well as repressing any political activity.
  
• Islamicization of the regime

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An excerpt from a US Embassy in Italy cable to
the Dept. of State regarding Envoy Donald
Rumsfelds meeting with Saddam Hussein, Dec. 19,
1983
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(More results of Iran-Iraq War)

• armed forces grew from 190,000 to over 1 million
  Republican Guard grows from 1 to 37 brigades.
  
• Iraq becomes major regional military power
• Militarization of society as armed forces became
  most important part of the state.
  
• Gulf War (1990-1991)
• After war, SH considerably weaker, forced to rely
  more on tribes to maintain authority
  
• UN sanctions also help him maintain power

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Major Players in Iraqi politics, 1968-1991/2003